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More and more, first- year writing courses foreground skills of critical analysis and argumentation. In response, Arguing about Literature first hones students’ analytical skills through instruction in close critical reading of texts; then, it shows them how to turn their reading into well-supported and rhetorically effective argumentative writing. From the authors of the groundbreaking and widely adopted Making Literature Matter, Arguing about Literature economically combines two books in one: a concise guide to reading literature and writing arguments, and a compact thematic anthology of stories, poems, plays, arguments, and other kinds of texts for inquiry, analysis and research. The second edition includes even more instruction in the key skills of argumentation, critical reading, and research, while linking literature more directly to the newsworthy current issues of today.

John Schilb (PhD, State University of New York—Binghamton) is a professor of English at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he holds the Culbertson Chair in Writing. He has coedited Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age, and with John Clifford, Writing Theory and Critical Theory. He is author of Between the Lines: Relating Composition Theory and Literary Theory and Rhetorical Refusals: Defying Audiences’ Expectations. John Clifford (PhD, New York University) is a professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Editor of The Experience of Reading: Louis Rosenblatt and Reader-Response Theory, he has published numerous scholarly articles on pedagogy, critical theory, and composition theory, most recently in College English; Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers; and in The Norton Book of Composition Studies.

A Brief Guide to Arguing about LiteraturePreface for Instructors Contents by Genre1. What is Argument? Paul Goldberger, Disconnected UrbanismNew Understanding RhetoricThe Elements of ArgumentSample Argument for Analysis David W. Barno, A New Moral Compact Writing a Response to an ArgumentNew Strategies for Analyzing an Argument So You Can Write a Response to It An Argument for AnalysisNew Regina Rini, Should We Rename Institutions that Honor Dead Racists?

New 2. Writing Effective ArgumentsStrategies for Developing an Effective Style of ArgumentStructuring Your Argument; Beyond the Five-Paragraph EssayStudent Response to an Argument Justin Korzack, How to Slow Down the Rush to War Arguments for AnalysisNew Lee Siegel, Why I Defaulted on My Student LoansNew Sophia McDougall, All Princesses Know Kung Fu

3. How Do You Argue about Literature?What Is Literature?Why Study Literature in a College Writing Course?Two Stories for Analysis Daniel Orozco, Orientation (story) Jamaica Kincaid, Girl (story)Strategies for Making Arguments about LiteratureSample Student Argument about Literature Ann Schumwalt, The Mother’s Mixed Messages in “Girl”Looking at Literature as Argument John Milton, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent (poem) Robert Frost, Mending Wall (poem) Literature and Current Issues New Rivka Galchen, Usl at the Stadium (story)New Jon Ronson, from “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life (argument)New Jennifer Jacquet, from Is Shame Necessary? (argument)

4.. The Reading ProcessStrategies for Close ReadingA Poem for Analysis Sharon Olds, “Summer Solstice, New York City” (poem)Applying the StrategiesReading Closely by Annotating X. J. Kennedy, Death of a Window Washer (poem) New Further Strategies for Close ReadingNew Identify Characters’ Emotions to Get IdeasNew Edward Hirsch, Execution (poem) Use Topics of Literary Studies to Get Ideas Lynda Hull, Night Waitress (poem) T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (poem)New Allison Alsup, Old Houses (story)5. The Writing Process William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper (poem)Strategies for ExploringStrategies for PlanningStrategies for ComposingFirst Draft of a Student Paper Abby Hazelton, The Passage of Time in “The Solitary Reaper”Strategies for Revising A Checklist for RevisingRevised Draft of a Student Paper Abby Hazelton, The Passage of Time in “The Solitary Reaper”Strategies for Writing a Comparative Paper Don Paterson, Two Trees (poem) Luisa A. Igloria, Regarding History (poem) List Similarities and Differences Consider “Weighting” Your ComparisonA Student Comparative Paper Jeremy Cooper,” Don Paterson’s Criticism of Nature’s Owners”6. Writing about Literary GenresWriting about Stories Eudora Welty, A Visit of CharityThe Elements of Short Fiction Plot and Structure/Point of View / Characters /Setting /Imagery/Language/ThemeFinal Draft of a Student Paper Tanya Vincent, The Real Meaning of Charity in “A Visit of Charity”Writing about Poems Mary Oliver, Singapore Yusef Komunyakaa, Blackberries Edwin Arlington Robinson, The MillThe Elements of Poetry Speaker and Tone / Diction and Syntax / Figures of Speech / Sound/ Rhythm and Meter /ThemeFinal Draft of a Student Paper Michaela Fiorucci, “Negotiating Boundaries” Comparing Poems and Pictures Analyzing Visual Art/ Writing an Essay that Compares Literature and Art/ A Sample Paper Comparing a Poem and a Picture Karl Magnusson, Lack of Motion and Speech in Rolando Perez’s “Office at Night” Edward Hopper, “Office at Night” Rolando Perez, “Office at NightWriting about Plays August Strindberg, The StrongerThe Elements of Drama Plot and Structure/ Characters/ Stage Directions and Setting /Imagery /Language/ ThemeFinal Draft of a Student Paper Trish Carlisle, “Which Is the Stronger Actress in August Strindberg’s Play?”

7. Writing Researched Arguments New Begin Your Research by Giving It DirectionSearch for Sources in the Library and OnlineEvaluate the Sources New Record Your Sources’ Key DetailsStrategies for Integrating Sources New Avoid PlagiarismStrategies for Documenting Sources (MLA Format) MLA In-Text Citation MLA Works Cited Three Annotated Student Researched ArgumentsAn Argument that Uses a Literary Work to Examine Social Issues Sarah Michaels, “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a Guide to Social Factors in Postpartum DepressionAn Argument that Deals with Existing Interpretations of a Literary Work Katie Johnson, The Meaning of the Husband’s Fainting in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”An Argument that Places a Literary Work in Historical and Cultural Context Brittany Thomas, The Relative Absence of the Human Touch in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”Contexts for Research: Confinement, Mental Illness and “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper Cultural Contexts Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” S. Weir Mitchell, From The Evolution of the Rest Treatment John Harvey Kellogg, From The Ladies’ Guide in Health and Disease

Working with the Critical Approaches James Joyce, Counterparts (story) Molly Fry, A Refugee at Home (student paper) New James Joyce, Eveline PART TWO: Literature and Arguments 9. Families Mothers and Daughters: Stories Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing Amy Tan, Two Kinds Alice Walker, Everyday Use Siblings in Conflict: Stories Tobias Wolff, The Rich Brother James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues Returning Home from War: StoriesNew Ernest Hemingway, Soldier’s HomeNew Lauren Groff, Good PeopleReconciling with Fathers: Poems Lucille Clifton, forgiving my father Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz Li-Young Lee, My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out LoudGrandparents and Legacies: Poems Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Grandfather at the Indian Health Clinic Nikki Giovanni, Legacies Linda Hogan, Heritage Alberto Ríos, Mi Abuelo Judith Ortiz Cofer, Claims Gays and Lesbians in Families: Poems Essex Hemphill, Commitments Audre Lorde, Who Said It Was Simple Minnie Bruce Pratt, Two Small-Sized Girls New Richard Blanco, Queer Theory: According to My GrandmotherLiterature and Current Issues: Should Working Women “Lean in”?New Deborah Garrison, Working Late on a Tuesday Night (poem)Arguments on the IssueNew Sheryl Sandberg, from Lean In New Rosa Brooks, Recline, Don’t Lean In: Why I Hate Sheryl Sandberg Literature and Current Issues: Why Do Children Rebel Against Parental Expectations? New Hanif Kureishi, My Son the Fanatic (story) Arguments on the IssueNew Roger Cohen, Why ISIS Trumps Freedom New Abdelkader Benali, From Teenage Angst to Jihad Arguments about a Poem: “Daddy” Sylvia Plath, Daddy Arguments about the Poem Mary Lynn Broe, From Protean Poetic: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath Lynda K. Bundtzen, From Plath's Incarnations Steven Gould Axelrod, From Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words Tim Kendall, from Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study Contexts for Research: Human Obligations, Robot Consciousness, and “The Long Years”New Ray Bradbury, The Long Years (story)Contexts for ResearchNew Eric Schwitzgebel, We Have a Greater Moral Obligation to Robots than to HumansNew Kenneth Chang, Can Robots become Conscious?New Dan Falk, How Long Before Robots Can Think Like Us?New A. M. Turing, From “Computing Machinery and Intelligence 10. LoveRomantic Dreams: Stories James Joyce, Araby John Updike, A & P New Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman Is This Love? Stories William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love True Love: Poems William Shakespeare, Let me not to the marriage of true minds John Keats, Bright StarNew Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? e. e. cummings, somewhere i have never travelled Passionate Love: Poems Michael S. Harper, Discovery Susan Minot, My Husband’s Back Melancholy Loves: PoemsNew Edna St. Vincent Millay, What My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why W.H. Auden, Funeral BluesNew Pablo Neruda, The Song of DespairNew Robin Becker, Morning PoemSeductive Arguments: PoemsNew John Donne, The Flea Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress Literature and Current Issues: Are Millennials Narcissists?New Tony Hoagland, What Narcissism Means to Me Arguments on the IssueNew Brooke Lea Foster, The Persistent Myth of the Narcissistic MillennialNew Emily Esfahani Smith and Jennifer Aaker, Millennial SearchersNew Dr. Keith Ablow, We Are Raising a Generation of Deluded NarcissistsNew Colson Whitehead, How ‘You do You’ Perfectly Captures Our Narcissistic Culture

Literature and Current Issues: Why Marry? Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour (story)Arguments on the Issue Laura Kipnis, Against Love Meghan O’Rourke, The Marriage Trap New Bob Morris, Gay Marriage? How Straight Arguments about a Play:Othello William Shakespeare, Othello Arguments about the Play: A.C. Bradley, The Noble Othello Millicent Bell, Othello’s Jealousy Jeffrie G. Murphy, Jealousy, Shame, and RivalContexts for Research: Social Disruption, Personal Anxiety, and “Dover Beach” Matthew Arnold, Dover BeachContexts for Research: New Charles Dickens, from Hard TimesNew Friedrich Engels, from The Condition of the Working Class in EnglandNew James Eli Adams, Narrating Nature: Darwin11. Freedom and ConfinementOppressive Traditions: Stories Shirley Jackson, The Lottery New Caitlin Horrocks, The SleepFreedom for Animals: Poems William Blake, The Tyger D. H. Lawrence, Snake Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish Dean Young, Clam Ode Trapped in Stereotypes: Poems Chrystos, Today Was a Bad Day Like TB Louise Erdrich, Dear John Wayne Dwight Okita, In Response to Executive Order 9066 David Hernandez, Pigeons Pat Mora, Legal Alien Toi Derricotte, Black Boys Play the Classics Naomi Shihab Nye, Blood A Creative Confinement: Poems by Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson, Wild Nights--Wild Nights! New Emily Dickinson, Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--New Emily Dickinson, Much Madness is divinest SenseNew Emily Dickinson, I’m Nobody! Who are you?Domestic Prisons: Plays Susan Glaspell, Trifles Lynn Nottage, POOF!Literature and Current Issues: Does Our Happiness Depend on Others’ Misery? Ursula LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Arguments on the IssueNew David Brooks, The Child in the BasementNew John R. Ehrenfeld, The Error of Trying to Measure Good and BadLiterature and Current Issues: What Aren’t You Free to Say? New Ariel Dorfman, The Gospel According to Garcia (story) Arguments on the IssueNew Catherine Rampell, “Free Speech is Flunking Out on College Campuses”New Geoffrey R. Stone and Will Creeley, “Restoring Free Speech on Campus”New Nicholas Kristof, “Mizzou, Yale and Free Speech”Contexts for Research: Domesticity, Women’s Rights, and A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House Contexts for ResearchNew Henrik Ibsen, MemorandumNew August Strindberg, Woman in A Doll’s HouseNew Emma Goldman, Review of A Doll’s HouseNew Joan Templeton, The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and IbsenNew Susanna Rustin, Why A Doll’s House Is More Relevant than Ever12. Crime and Justice Discovering Injustice: Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson New Ha Jin, SaboteurRacial Injustice: Poems Countee Cullen, Incident Natasha Trethewey, IncidentJustice for Workers: Poems New Philip Levine, What Work Is New Marge Piercy, The Secretary Chant New Philip Shultz, GreedPunishments: Poems Seamus Heaney, Punishment Carolyn Forché, The Colonel

He Said/She Said: Poems Robert Browning, My Last Duchess Gabriel Spera, My Ex-Husband A Dream of Justice: Poems by Langston Hughes Langston Hughes, Open Letter to the South Langston Hughes, Theme for English B Langston Hughes, Harlem How Can Injustice Be Resisted? Plays Sophocles, Antigone Ida Fink, The Table

Literature and Current Issues: Should Neuroscience Redefine Criminal Law? New Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart (story)Arguments on the Issue David Eagleman, The Brain on Trial (argument) Raymond Tallis, Why Blame Me? It Was All My Brain’s Fault (argument)Literature and Contemporary Debates: How Just Is Capital Punishment? Sherman Alexie, Capital Punishment (poem) Arguments on the IssueNew George Will, "Capital Punishment's Slow Death" New Bill Otis, George Will's Limp Case Against the Death PenaltyNew Charles J. Ogletree, “Condemned to Die Because He’s Black”Arguments about a Story: “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find Arguments about the Story Flannery O’Connor, from Mystery and Manners Martha Stephens, from The Question of Flannery O’Connor Stephen Bandy, from “’One of My Babies’: The Misfit and the Grandmother John Desmond, from “Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit and the Mystery of Evil” Contexts for Research: Innocence, Evil, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Contexts for ResearchNew Don Moser, The Pied Piper of TucsonNew Joyce Carol Oates, Smooth Talk: Short Story into FilmNew Margaret Talbot, from Gone Girl: The Extraordinary Resilience of Elizabeth Smart13. JourneysFairy Tale Journeys: Stories Charles Perrault, Little Red Riding Hood Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Little Red Cap Angela Carter, The Company of Wolves Wartime Journeys: Stories Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried New Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Roads Taken: Poems by Robert Frost Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night Visionary Journeys: PoemsNew Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla KhanNew Percy Bysshe Shelley, OzymandiasNew William Butler Yeats, Sailing to ByzantiumFinal Journeys: Poems Mary Oliver, When Death Comes John Donne, Death Be Not Proud Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death Literature and Current Issues: Do Immigrants Take Jobs from Native-Born Workers? New Jimmy Santiago Baca, So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans (poem) Arguments on the IssueNew Steven Camarota, Unskilled Workers Lose Out to ImmigrantsNew Maria E. Enchautegui, Immigrants Are Replacing, Not Displacing, WorkersNew Ted Widmer, The Immigration DividendLiterature and Current Issues: What Makes a Woman? New Adrienne Rich, Diving Into the Wreck Arguments on the IssueNew Elinor Burkett, What Makes a Woman?New Jaclyn Friedman Who Decides What Makes a Woman?New Leela Ginelle, Trans Women are Women. Why Do We have to Keep Saying This?Contexts for Research: Race, Social Equality, and “Battle Royal” Ralph Ellison, “Battle Royal” Contexts for Research: Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address W.E. B. DuBois, Of Mr. Booker T. Washington Gunnar Myrdal, Social EqualityIndex of Authors, Titles, Terms, and First Lines